It is necessary to open up the monitoring process for Turkey without suspending the powers of the Turkish delegation, said Danish Socialist Mogens Jensen on Thursday 15 December, who is chair of the ad hoc sub-committee set up on 13 October 2016 by the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE)’s Political Affairs Commission.
The sub-committee’s brief is to examine the tangible outcome of measures decreed by Ankara following the attempted coup d’état of 15 July 2016.
This recommendation, published on Thursday 15 December, comes at the end of a report on a visit made by the ad hoc commission to Turkey from 21 to 23 November.
The decision to call a state of emergency was needed because the State is entitled and has the duty to punish the protagonists, protect citizens and fight terrorism in all its forms, says Mogens Jensen, adding that the measures taken by the government, however, in its broad interpretation of these powers have gone beyond what is allowed under the Turkish constitution and international law.
Mogen Jensens recommends going beyond the post-monitoring procedure to which Turkey is currently subject (along with Bulgaria, Montenegro and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia) and going back to the more binding monitoring process of regular visits by two rapporteurs in permanent dialogue with the authorities and occasional debates at the PACE plenary, as currently occurs for Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bosnia Herzegovina, Georgia, Moldova, Serbia and Ukraine.
This also applies to the Russian Federation, but is has had its delegations’ powers suspended at PACE following annexation of Crimea. This far more coercive suspension measure is not recommended by Mogens Jensen for Turkey.
He explained that it would be an error and counter-productive to target members of both the majority and the opposition, would damage dialogue and could push Turkey to take its distance from the Council of Europe. This is what happened with Russia, whose delegation left PACE with much to do on 29 January 2015 and has not yet returned.
The measures recommended by the sub-committee presided over by Mogens Jensen for Turkey are not yet final and will be examined by PACE at its next plenary, which will be held in Strasbourg on 23 to 27 January 2017. (Original version in French by Véronique Leblanc)